Surveillance systems are commonly used, including surveillance systems in public places and in private enterprises. While some such systems are small in scope, many are implemented specifically to be used in monitoring very large numbers of monitored items. For example, surveillance systems used to monitor traffic in large cities may be expected to continually obtain, process, and store huge numbers of image files in which images of corresponding vehicles are included.
In these and similar surveillance systems, it is difficult to provide a desired level of timeliness and type of processing of captured images or other data records, particularly considering practical limitations on the availability of computing resources. As a result, a utility of existing surveillance systems may be limited, since desired information within captured data may not be available when needed, or may not be retrievable in practical or efficient manner.